Lancashire land Roses draw

Thursday 13 July 1995 23:02 BST

Click to followThe Independent Online

Cricket

Lancashire, the only team to still have a chance of pulling off cricket's grand slam, face a Roses confrontation with Yorkshire in the NatWest Trophy quarter-finals. However, Mike Watkinson's side, who saw off holders Worcestershire in the second round, also found themselves with an away draw - along with Warwickshire, Middlesex and Northamptonshire.

Warwickshire, last year's treble winners, play at Derbyshire, but their confidence is high again after a sluggish start to the season. Phil Neale, their director of cricket, said: "We've won 12 out of the last 13 matches and over the last six weeks we have played really good cricket. We had an awful lot of injuries at the start of the summer, and I also think there was a bit of complacency after the successes of last season.

"Now we've started to get a settled side together again, and the players have shown that they can cope with the pressures that last year brought upon them. They are making things happen again, rather than sitting back expecting everything to work out."

Gloucestershire have decided against holding their tie with Northamptonshire at Cheltenham. Philip August, their chief executive, said: "We feel that Bristol is the better venue because we can accommodate a crowd of 5,000 or so more comfortably at the County Ground. We will be putting a temporary stand in to increase capacity, and we want to make sure everyone gets a decent view."